RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



profited by the lesson because it was simple, and close by where 

 they could see it. But some effort was also made to assist this 

 process. Farmers around the demonstration were notified of the 

 agent's visit and invited to come to the demonstration farm for a 

 conference. These informal meetings were called field meetings 

 or field schools. Neighboring farmers who were sufficiently in- 

 terested agreed to carry on a demonstration on their own farms 

 and to obtain their instruction from meeting the agent at the 

 demonstration farms. These men who were not visited were 

 called " cooperators. " Out of these meetings grew neighbor- 

 hood organizations of farmers or community clubs which now 

 form an important part of the work. 



About 1908 Dr. Knapp first began what was known as the 

 Boys' Corn Club Movement in the South. It is true that there 

 had been corn clubs in a number of the northern states and in 

 one or two of the southern states prior to that time. However, 

 Dr. Knapp should receive the credit for systematizing this very 

 important ahd excellent piece of work. He established it on an 

 acre contest basis and arranged for the giving of prizes, not on 

 the maximum yield alone, but upon the maximum yield at mini- 

 mum cost, with a written essay describing the work done and an 

 exhibit of the product. The objects of the Boys' Corn Club 

 Work were: 



1. To afford the rural teacher a simple and easy method of 

 teaching practical agriculture in the schools in the way it must 

 be acquired to be of any real service; namely, by actual work 

 upon the farm. 



2. To prove that there is more in the soil than the farmer 

 has ever gotten out of it. To inspire* boys with a love of the 

 land by showing them how they can get wealth out of it by 

 tilling it in a better way, and thus to be helpful to the family 

 and the neighborhood, and 



3. To give the boys a definite, worthy purpose and to stimulate 

 a friendly rivalry among them. 



The first effort in this direction was in Mississippi when Mr. 

 W. H. Smith, then County Superintendent of Schools for Holmes 

 County, did the work in cooperation with the demonstration 



